Spotify’s Daniel Ek ditches CEO title for ‘more hands on’ executive chairman role
Ek will focus primarily on issues shaping Spotify's future, with the two new co-CEOs reporting directly to him
By Jon Blistein
Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek will step aside as CEO of the streaming platform and move up to a new role as executive chairman.
Ek announced his decision in a letter shared with Spotify staff on Tuesday, Sept. 30. The corporate shuffle will go into effect Jan. 1, 2026, with Gustav Söderström, co-president and chief product and technology officer, and Alex Norström, co-president and chief business officer, taking over as co-CEO.
Despite the title changes, Ek will maintain a significant leadership role at Spotify, especially in shaping the company’s future. He said he will focus primarily on “strategy, capital allocation, regulatory efforts, and the calls that will shape the next decade for Spotify.”
Ek added that Söderström and Norström will continue to to report to him, and all three will work closely with the company’s board of directors (which the co-CEOs will join, subject to approval). Ek said the new structure “reflects a European Chairman setup,” adding that he “will be more hands on than” executives in the U.S. who take on a chairman role.
“I have always thought about roles as missions,” Ek said. “At Spotify, I have had about nine missions while keeping the same title. In the early days, I assembled furniture and negotiated our first deals. I ran finance, I led product and then I led sales and then marketing. I have held roles and done jobs across most teams here. This is simply my next mission. My title changes — but my commitment and belief in what we’re building does not.”
While Spotify remains the dominant music streaming platform, the leadership tweak does come at a tumultuous time for the company as it grapples with longstanding issues like criticism over its royalty payout system, as well as new ones such as the rising tide of AI-spam music and streaming fraud. Ek has also been the focus of protests from artists who have removed their music from Spotify over the executive’s ties to Helsing, a German defense tech company with a particular focus on artificial intelligence.
Ek not-so-subtly alluded to Spotify’s spot at the center of music industry discourse at the start of his letter, writing, “In the Spotify of today, all eyes (and ears) are on us. There’s not much we do that goes unnoticed.” Later, he acknowledged his endeavors outside Spotify, and said he would continue to help create more “supercompanies” in Europe “that are developing new technologies to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time.”